NVM

Grand Slam

3.06 min, HD
Video-Installation
New York, USA

The video-performance 'Grand Slam' shows in slow motion a woman in a tennis skirt as she practices hitting a tennis ball against a blank wall. As the ball strikes the wall with increasing intensity, it begins to leave thick black marks on the wall, as if the ball has been drenched in paint. There are close ups of the woman’s thighs, her mouth, her hair, the side of her face as she repeatedly beleaguers the ball with her racket. Everything about this work is aggressive. The deep resonance of the ball hitting the wall. The woman, racquet in hand, forcefully swinging at a tennis ball. The black splotches on the wall, remnants of where the ball has left its mark.
Throughout the piece the main character, who is also the artist, looks increasingly weary. Perhaps worn down by her struggle to return the ball to the wall again and again. Marcin is admittedly inclined towards feminist theory and practices, while striving to create a new context for the feminist conversation. In her untitled performance piece, she seems to ask her audience to identify the struggle present in the piece and beyond. From a cultural perspective the piece seems to mimic other public conversations that at the very least women are having nationally. Marcin doesn’t exactly answer the question, but the piece suggests that maybe the struggle is more internal than external.